Mapping Network Drives

PowerShell offers numerous ways to connect to SMB file shares. Here are three different approaches:

# adjust path to point to your file share
$UNCPath='\\server\share'netuse*$UNCPathNew-PSDrive-Namey-PSProviderFileSystem-Root$UNCPath-PersistNew-SmbMapping-LocalPath'x:'-RemotePath$UNCPath

Net.exe is the most versatile approach and available in all PowerShell versions. By providing a “*”, it automatically picks the next available drive letter.

New-PSDrive supports SMB shares beginning in PowerShell 3. New-SmbMapping requires the SmbShare module and seems to be a bit buggy at this time: the drive shows in Windows Explorer only after a reboot.